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Last night Gwen's Netflix was "House of Flying Daggers" which is billed as a action/romance. Um. Right. It starts off with the prologue making it sound like Robin Hood, but we quickly learn it is more "Romeo and Juliet." Or even "Pyramus and Thisbe."
The movie is visually stunning, even if the subtitles were trite (sure hope that in the original Chinese it had more to recommend it), and Gwen and I tended to MST the story. The costumes were also quite wonderful, and alas! the martial arts sequences were not quite as wonderful as other movies in this genre (crouching tiger... and Hero).
We joked that the fight scenes were choreographed by Busby Berkeley - instead of showgirls we got the male Asian warriors, but really, same dif. The movie also took us through all the seasons of the year in about four days, so woo! for the magic of timetravel. I liked the shots in amongst the bamboo forest, but the number of warriors in the trees (relatively few - maybe fifteen?) and the number of fresh bamboo spears thrown at our couple (i don't know, maybe a hundred?) did not match unless they were pulling the spears from a pocket dimension where they were already stripped of leaves and ready to fly.
Mei lost bits of her clothing, most notably her shoulder coverings, far too easily. I know this was placed in ancient China, and perhaps that was like showing ankles in Victorian England, but all I could think was, gosh, she looks cold.
The one love scene (after many starts and stops with two different paramours, no less) was in the middle of a field of ripened hay, or other such long grasses and all we could think was "ITCHY!"
And not a few hours later that same field is buried in about six inches of snow, so we get the contrast of blood on snow for the last fight scene.
One thing that is never answered is that the House of Flying Daggers has laid a trap for a general - does the trap get sprung? Did the House get wiped out? Are all the people in the green dresses female? How did they get into the bamboo forest ahead of Mei and Jin? Who is minding the store at the Peony Pavilion?
So yeah - worth it to watch for the cinematography, but if you can, lose the subtitles and watch it in the original Chinese. You will have a much better viewing experience, and making up what they are saying is far more rewarding than the actual translation.
The movie is visually stunning, even if the subtitles were trite (sure hope that in the original Chinese it had more to recommend it), and Gwen and I tended to MST the story. The costumes were also quite wonderful, and alas! the martial arts sequences were not quite as wonderful as other movies in this genre (crouching tiger... and Hero).
We joked that the fight scenes were choreographed by Busby Berkeley - instead of showgirls we got the male Asian warriors, but really, same dif. The movie also took us through all the seasons of the year in about four days, so woo! for the magic of timetravel. I liked the shots in amongst the bamboo forest, but the number of warriors in the trees (relatively few - maybe fifteen?) and the number of fresh bamboo spears thrown at our couple (i don't know, maybe a hundred?) did not match unless they were pulling the spears from a pocket dimension where they were already stripped of leaves and ready to fly.
Mei lost bits of her clothing, most notably her shoulder coverings, far too easily. I know this was placed in ancient China, and perhaps that was like showing ankles in Victorian England, but all I could think was, gosh, she looks cold.
The one love scene (after many starts and stops with two different paramours, no less) was in the middle of a field of ripened hay, or other such long grasses and all we could think was "ITCHY!"
And not a few hours later that same field is buried in about six inches of snow, so we get the contrast of blood on snow for the last fight scene.
One thing that is never answered is that the House of Flying Daggers has laid a trap for a general - does the trap get sprung? Did the House get wiped out? Are all the people in the green dresses female? How did they get into the bamboo forest ahead of Mei and Jin? Who is minding the store at the Peony Pavilion?
So yeah - worth it to watch for the cinematography, but if you can, lose the subtitles and watch it in the original Chinese. You will have a much better viewing experience, and making up what they are saying is far more rewarding than the actual translation.
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